Delmar postal worker scammed $430K in disability benefits

Video captures ex-postal worker lifting, mowing

A former U.S. Postal Service employee from Delmar who collected nearly $430,000 in disability benefits for a 1987 back injury that supposedly rendered her unable to work was convicted of fraud Tuesday in U.S. District Court.

Carol-Lisa Gutman, 66, who claimed she was in constant excruciating pain that required her to spend up to 16 hours a day in a hot tub, was convicted on all eight counts she faced at trial before Senior Judge Frederick Scullin. A jury convicted Gutman of wire fraud, federal employees' compensation fraud and theft of government money.

Gutman was thwarted by video evidence presented by federal prosecutors working for U.S. Attorney Richard Hartunian.

Gutman claimed she could not bend, kneel, sit or reach above the shoulder, but the video evidence captured her "mowing a lawn, raking leaves, bending over repeatedly, lifting objects, reaching above her shoulder repeatedly, and otherwise engaging in physical activities inconsistent with the restrictions identified by numerous physicians, all without apparent pain, discomfort, or distress," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Perry wrote in a pre-trial motion to Scullin.

The trial began June 20.

Neighbors witnessed Gutman over the years "shoveling snow, carrying cinder blocks, riding a bicycle, digging up the roots of a tree, gardening extensively, carrying building materials, sitting down for hours at a time with no apparent discomfort," Perry wrote.

In his brief, Perry explained Gutman claimed she hurt her back while lifting a sack of mail on July 13, 1987. She then became eligible for disability compensation benefits that she collected monthly.

In April 2013, Gutman reported to an independent doctor that she is essentially homebound and does not shop. The same day, federal investigators photographed Gutman shopping at "multiple retail locations, all without any apparent distress or outward evidence of pain," Perry wrote.

Gutman's attorney, Lauren Owens, tried to get the video surveillance blocked from trial.

"To the extent that portions of longer periods of surveillance are clipped and strung together in a sequence or montage in a single continuous video, any such proof would be overwhelmingly prejudicial and misleading for the jury as it fails to reflect the actual length of time of any activity Mrs. Gutman was performing," the lawyer stated in her own brief to the judge. "In most, if not all of the surveillance videos, Mrs. Gutman is engaged in an activity for less than 45 minutes."